Medicine Faculty Honors

Barry Zingman, MD

Barry Zingman, MD (Infectious Diseases) represented the HIV Medicine Association at the CDC/HRSA Consultation on Updated Recommendations for Prevention with Persons Living With HIV, April 28-29, 2011 in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Gonzalez's academic interests revolve around undergraduate medical education, both in the clinical realm and in the preclinical years, with particular focus on teaching about health disparities, giving learners the tools to overcome health and health care disparities in their own clinical encounters, and exposing them to avenues of advocacy to help patient populations at large.

The award supported Dr. Gonzalez's recent trip to the Society of General Internal Medicine national meeting, and her attendance at the Leon Hess Management Training and Leadership Institute while at SGIM. She was honored at the annual ACLGIM dinner on May 4th.

Established in 1908, the ASCI is one of the nation's oldest and most respected medical honor societies, comprising about 2,800 physician-scientists from all medical specialties and publishing the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Members are elected for their outstanding records of scholarly achievement in biomedical research. Many ASCI senior members are widely recognized leaders in academic medicine, including a number of Nobel Laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Young Investigator Award is presented annually to an individual with an outstanding record of achievement and creativity in basic or patient-oriented research related to the functions and diseases of the kidney. The award recipient gives a presentation during a plenary session at the annual meeting.

The AAP represents a subset of the ASCI membership that has shown real leadership in American academic medicine and science. The AAP was founded in 1885 for the "advancement of scientific and practical medicine." Currently, the AAP has 1200 active members and 550 emeritus members. Members include Nobel laureates and members of the National Academy of Science and the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Czaja will also join, by invitation, the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review's Hepatobiliary Pathophysiology Study Section, for the term beginning January 1, 2012 and ending June 30, 2015.

Dr. Czaja’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms regulating hepatocyte (liver cell) injury and the cellular progression from injury to death. His current and future research efforts involve mechanisms by which hepatocyte injury results in cell death, with the goal of preventing liver failure that underlies human liver disease. Work from Dr. Czaja's laboratory has demonstrated that cell death occurs not only from the direct biochemical effects of toxins, but also as the result of factors produced by inflammatory cells including cytokines and reactive oxygen species. More about Dr. Czaja's studies

NIH study section members are selected on the basis of demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors. Service on a study section also requires mature judgment and objectivity as well as the ability to work effectively in a group, qualities the Center believes Dr. Czaja will bring to this important task.

Membership on a study section represents a major commitment of professional time and energy as well as a unique opportunity to contribute to the national biomedical research effort. Study sections review grant applications submitted to the NIH, make recommendations on these applications to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and survey the status of research in their fields of science.

Joshua D. Nosanchuk, MD

Dr. Joshua D. Nosanchuk (Infectious Diseases) has been appointed to the STEP 1 Committee for the National Board of Medical Examiners/United States Medical Licensing Examination (NBME/USMLE) for a three-year term. This is in addition to his continued role as Chair of the STEP 1 Microbiology and Immunology Committee.

Laurie Jacobs, M.D.

Laurie Jacobs (Geriatrics), Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Geriatrics Society, the professional organization in geriatric medicine.

Mario Garcia (Cardiology) has been elected to be a board member of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and to serve on the American College of Cardiology's ACCF Task Force on Clinical Expert Consensus Documents.

Victor Schuster (Nephrology) will serve as Treasurer of the Association of Professors of Medicine (medicine chairs) beginning July 1, 2011.

Laura Boucai, M.D.

Laura Boucai, along with J.G. Hollowell and Martin Surks (Endocrinology) had their article on thyroid functions tests as a function of gender and race highlighted in the February 2011 issue of Nature reviews Endocrinology.

Chaim Putterman, M.D.

Rheumatology News features a recent study by Dr. Chaim Putterman suggesting that high urinary neutrophil gelatinase–associated lipocalin (uNGAL) levels predict the presence of nephritis and may sufficiently warrant a prophylactic treatment approach. Dr. Putterman is chief of the Division of Rheumatology and Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology & Immunology. see Rheumatology News article

Thomas Aldrich, M.D. and David Prezant, M.D.

Thomas Aldrich and David Prezant (Pulmonary Medicine) published a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine on findings that 9/11 rescue workers exposed to thick clouds of dust after the attack on the World Trade Center had large drops in lung function lasting at least seven years. see NYT article

John Reinus (Gastroenterology & Liver Diseases) was included in a news feature photo as a member of the medical team for a woman from Long Island who received a liver transplant at Montefiore in the middle of the blizzard on February 25-26, 2010.

The latest issue of Montefiore's "Keeping You Healthy", a newsletter distributed to 400,000 households in Westchester County, featured the Department of Medicine's new Scarsdale practice site, including a photo of Dr. Eric Epstein doing thyroid ultrasound.

Sarita Shah, M.D.

Sarita Shah (General Internal Medicine) had a first-author paper published this week in JAMA on the topic of Extensively Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB). Related news articles were quickly picked up by the media:

Emergence of XDR-TB is a global public health concern. To examine the epidemiologyand clinical course of XDR-TB, Shah and colleagues analyzed TB cases that were reported in the United States from 1993 to2007. They report risk factors, clinical features, and survival rates for XDR-TB compared with multidrug-resistant TB and drug-susceptible TB cases. Among their findings is that 83 cases of XDR-TB have occurred in the United States since 1993. Recent declines in annual cases parallel improvements in TB and HIV/AIDS control.